Sydney University: An elite university sees Palestinian victimhood in action, and apologises

The Sydney University employee did not have to say anything. She did not have turn around. But the presence of Jews celebrating the Festival of Sukkot on campus was too infuriating to ignore.

“I am Semitic,” she said, her voice rising in anger. “You’re not. You’re a white woman.”

She strode up to one of the Jews, within easy striking distance, and demanded to know, five times: “Are you a Zionist?” “The Zionists are shredding children,” she said.

The confrontation, which was captured on a phone and supplied to Sky News, was a sign of how deeply the hatreds generated by the Hamas-Israel war have become embedded in Australian society. It also suggested that being proudly Jewish is now considered offensive in parts of Australia.

The woman, who has not been publicly identified, held an Australian Jew responsible for deaths in Gaza.

“You should be making it stop,” she said with the intensity of a person certain of their opponent’s moral culpability. “F...ing filthy Zionists” are parasites, she said.

The scale of death and destruction in Gaza is horrible. Even if Hamas authorities’ estimate of 67,200 fatalities is exaggerated, Palestinians have been forced to endure violence beyond the comprehension of those of us who live in the prosperous and peaceful West.

But the Sydney University Palestinian, and many others who denounce Israel, wilfully ignore that their side initiated the war. It should be self evident that it is grossly unfair to blame Australian Jews for the actions of the Israeli government, which acted with predictable fury when Hamas — which Gazans elected as their government — committed atrocities on October 7, 2023.

Palestinians have become the world’s ultimate victims. Convinced by their leaders that Jews are evil, they regard violence towards the Jewish state as legitimate.

To mark two years since the start of the carnage, British journalist Piers Morgan this week interviewed Nasser Mashni, the president of the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network.

Mr Mashni, who was born in Australia, is a leading defender of the war against Israel. Asked by Morgan if October 7 was an “act of resistance,” he said, nodding: “Palestinians rose up and resisted Israeli oppression.”

“This is my problem,” Morgan replied. “It wasn’t an act of resistance. It was an act of despicable terrorism.”

The two then engaged in a semantic debate in which Mr Mashni condemned the killing of civilians while defending Hamas’s invasion.

Morgan is no fan boy for Israel, which he argues has taken the war too far. But he has the moral clarity of an interested bystander who sees compromise is necessary on both sides.

As for Sydney University, which regards itself as the nation’s top academic institution, the professors were so embarrassed by their employee’s behaviour that they suspended her, promised “further assessment” and apologised.

“We’re disturbed and appalled by the vision that depicts verbal abuse and harassment on campus,” a spokesperson said. “We deeply apologise to any staff, students or visitors who are distressed or impacted by this incident in anyway.”

Many Australians wonder what can be done about anti-Semitism and other prejudice. Sydney University may have just provided an answer: come down hard on those who practice self-righteous bigotry.